Interaction of Chlamydomonas dynein with tubulin

Studies were conducted to determine if dynein could bind to unpolymerized tubulin. Tubulin alone normally fractionated in the included volume of a molecular sieve Bio-Gel A-1.5m column. Incubated together, tubulin and dynein coeluted in the void volumn, suggesting that a complex had formed between the two. In addition, immunoelectron microscopy revealed preassembled microtubules were labeled with biotin antibody only when incubated in both dynein and biotinylated tubulin, evidence that dynein with bound biotinylated tubulin had decorated the microtubules. A fraction of the tubulin could be dissociated from dynein by addition of ATP and vanadate, as assayed by molecular sieve chromatography followed by densitometry of gels, suggesting that some tubulin bound to the B end of the dynein arm. Additional tubulin dissociated from the dynein under conditions of high salt. These studies, together with those indicating that tubulin blocked the A end of the dynein arm from binding to microtubules and promoted the interaction of two arms at their A ends, provide evidence that the A end of the arm also can bind tubulin. Thus, the tubulin subunits, themselves, on a microtubule rather than a particular surface lattice structure formed by adjacent protofilaments may provide the binding sites for both ends of the dynein arm.